Health Matters: The aging heart

"The aortic valve is the valve that separates the main pumping chamber; the left ventricle from the remainder of the body," says Dr. Brian Hummel, cardiothoracic surgeon on Lee Memorial Health System's medical staff.

Like most pumps, this one can break down over time.

"Oftentimes it is just a atherosclerosis progressing - like blockage in the coronary to blockage in the valve. And calcium build up in the valve becomes less flexible and with loss of flexibility of the valve blood can't push the valve aside to get out of the heart," says Dr. Steven Priest, a cardiologist with Lee Memorial Health System.

The condition worsens gradually over a period of years.

"A patient may be aware that they have a valve problem and actually in the beginning be completely asymptomatic. Over even 10 years it becomes more severe and then as it becomes very severe," says Priest.

Aortic stenosis is not considered preventable. In early stages people may undergo an angioplasty to open the valve and increase its pumping function. The only long-term solution is a valve replacement.

"The standard operation was to open somebody's chest, stop their heart, open the aorta, cut out the valve, sew a new valve in, close up, and take them off the heart lung machine," says Dr. Hummel.

Surgeons at Lee Memorial Health System are now replacing the aortic valve without opening the chest. Called TAVR- a new valve is fed through a catheter inserted the groin, which is threaded to the heart. It's now approved for use in select, late-stage patients.

"As the baby boomers age, we're going to see more and more of these patients-where these valves become narrowed and really limit the lifestyle and life expectancy," says Dr. Hummel.

With no cure to aging, procedures like TAVR are breathing new life into an old heart.